When senior YSR Congress party leader and advisor to Andhra Pradesh government (public affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said the other day that political strategist Prashant Kishor would not be working for the party for 2024 elections, everybody thought chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had severed his ties with the strategist.
But Sajjala talked about only Prashant Kishor, but not the organisation – Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) founded by him.
Apparently, Prashant Kishor officially came out the I-PAC as he has political ambitions – he indicated floating of a new party starting with Bihar. But I-PAC continues to be his brainchild.
Sources said though Prashant might not be working for Jagan for the next elections, I-PAC team is going to work for the party.
It is not immediately known whether the team would be working under the banner of I-PAC or some other name specific to Andhra Pradesh.
According to these sources, Prashant’s colleague and co-founder of I-PAC Rishi Raj Singh and his team members held a meeting with the chief minister at Tadepalli camp office on Tuesday and discussed the strategies for the coming two years.
Sources said the team members have been identified to work for YSRC in AP and they would start functioning from May 15 in a full-fledged manner. The agreement was signed for a certain undisclosed amount, they said.
Hailing from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Rishi was an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
After working for an investment banker for a couple of years, he, along with Prashant Kishor, founded a body called Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) in 2013.
The CAG worked for the campaign of Narendra Modi in 2014 elections. From 3D shows to ‘Chai pe Charcha’, all the campaigns for Modi were organised by CAG. And it was a big hit and Modi became the Prime Minister of India.
Later, Rishi and Prashant dissolved CAG after the Lok Sabha elections and floated I-PAC, which worked in Bihar elections for Nitish Kumar. They helped JD-U to win the Bihar elections.
In Andhra Pradesh, too, after Prashant Kishor, it was Rishi and his team who had done a lot of ground work and helped YSRC to win the elections in 2019. Now, Rishi will continue to work for Jagan till 2024.